GUIDELINE CHILD SUPPORT AND THE BEST INTERESTS OF CHILDREN
by Barney Connaughton, Esq

Child support in California is set by the Courts using a mandated guideline formula which considers the incomes of each parent and the amount of time each parent is responsible for the care of the children. The simple notion behind including the amount of time spent with the children is that the more time the child is in the care of a parent, the more that parent is paying child related expenses and the less they should be required to pay to the other parent for such expenses. It makes perfect sense thinking about it logically, but this formula has created some serious problems in practice.

When the Court is considering the best interests of the children in making orders regarding how the children are to be shared, it is not to consider the economic situation of the parents in making such orders. Financial issues and child sharing issues are to be kept separate. If a parent is not paying child support it does not give the custodial parent the right to keep the child from the non-paying parent. These parameters likewise make perfect sense as we do not want a child’s relationship with a parent to be limited because one parent makes more money than the other, or one parent is having financial difficulties. So we have the Court saying financial issues and child sharing issues are to be kept separate and oh, by the way, lets figure out how much time each of you spend with the children so that we can figure out an appropriate level of child support.

The guideline formula sure makes it easy to determine how much child support should exchange hands. We just need to figure out each parent’s gross monthly income, determine any appropriate deductions from that income, then count the hours that each parent has custody of the child. We plug these numbers into a computer program set up to compute the algebraic support formula set forth in Family Code Section 4055 and out comes the mandated guideline child support number. We know that it is important for both parents to be in a position to be able to provide financially for the needs of their children, but is guideline child support as it is currently set up in the best interests of the children?

As an attorney I am regularly advising parents regarding the issues of custody and child support. Out of one side of my mouth I am telling clients that it is important for them to consider the needs of their children and that the Court will be trying to figure out what is best for the children in making orders regarding child sharing. Out of the other side of my mouth I am explaining how child support works and the significance of child sharing time in calculating child support. I genuinely want my clients to be thinking of the needs of their children when proposing child sharing schedules, but it becomes impossible to avoid the financial consequences given the role of time share in support. Unless the couple chooses another method of setting support which does not involve using the Court to decide who is mandated to use the guideline formula, the connection between child sharing and child support is unavoidable. Giving parents a financial incentive to fight over child sharing is not in the best interests of the children.

So what can be done to fix this system of determining support? Some states have child support tables that are based purely on the incomes of the parents. Somebody who is seeing their child regularly would pay the same amount of support as the parent who is spending little or no time with the children. This method keeps the issues of support and child-sharing completely separate but does not consider the added costs or lack of costs associated with the children spending more or less time in each home.

A second method is to set support based upon demonstrated need and ability to pay. With this method the incomes and expenses of the couple are reviewed, and a support amount is set based upon the realistic expenses of each household. Part of the work in this method is getting to the bottom of what the true expenses of the parties are. Any inflated expenses must be deflated to a realistic level so that both households are being asked to equally tighten their budgets. This method takes into consideration the time the children are in each home only to the extent it relates to the additional expenses incurred in having the children there. This method diffuses the fighting over child-sharing for financial purposes, but is not nearly as easy to administer as plugging income figures and time-share percentages into the guideline support formula. The end result is a much more thought out support figure considering the particular financial situation of the family.

Guideline child support is intended to assure that the financial needs of the children are met in the home of each of their parents. The fact that child sharing percentages are part of the guideline support equation unfortunately makes it so the time the children spend in each home impacts the amount of support that changes hands. The Court is faced with the difficult task of deciphering between a parent’s sincere desire to spend more time with their children, verses the sincere desire of that parent to pay less support. We should continue exploring alternate ways to calculate an appropriate level of child support that removes child sharing from the equation as it is simply not in the best interests of the children to give their divorcing parents another reason to fight over them.